Ever since the Sumerian language became known for the world of the linguists,
there have been claims and counter claims to the view that the Sumerian and
Turkish languages are related. While some groups vehemently deny the linguistic
affinity between the two languages, others gingerly but nevertheless positively
admit the affinity of these two languages.

In the following list, a set of 200 English words, numbered from 1 to 200 and
alternatively known as "200 concept group Hymes List", and their correspondences
in Sumerian and Turkish are given. Under each selection in English, other
concepts related to the selected word's meaning are also entered. Thus in the
first two columns, we have the English and Sumerian entries and in the third
column, Turkish entries are provided.

The purpose of this study is to bring to attention those Sumerian and Turkish
words which correspond to each other and/or seemingly related to each other in
form and in meaning and at the same time to see if Turkish can pass a given test
in order to prove its kinship to the Sumerian. From the listed words given
below, there seems to be ample evidence that the Turkish, as members of Altaic
languages, have come from a root that also included the Sumerian language. In
view of the fact that the Sumerian and Turkish have been separated from each
other or from a parent language, that is if they had a common parent in the
past, for at least five thousand years, it is surprising to see that there still
are many words which correspond to each other in both languages.

It is hoped that other workers in this field will contribute to this list to
improve its level of accuracy such that it will make the Sumerian-Turkish
relationship an unquestionably recognized one.

At this point I would like to acknowledge, with special thanks, the contribution
of Fred Hamori who
provided the 200 word concept group Hymes List.

The Sumerian being an ancient and dead language, its present day reading has
been done through the intermediary of Akkadian and other Semitic languages.
Since language is the most important part of any culture, those who did not live
the Sumerian culture that created the Sumerian language would not be able to
define exact meanings of Sumerian words no matter how efficient readers they may
be of the Sumerian cuneiform writing system. Therefore some degree of
inexactness is expected in the definition and meaning of each Sumerian word.
However, since the list given below is based on the works of some of the eminent
scholars of the field, it can be viewed as up to date.

As for the Turkic correspondences of the Sumerian words given in the list below,
I have tried to find Turkish correspondences from archaic as well as the living
Turkic languages.

According to Dell Hymes, [Dell Hymes, "Lexikostatistics so far", Current
Anthropology, pages 30-31 University of Chicago, 1960], we have the following
mathematical relationship between languages that have the same root but
separated from each other in the past:

t = log c: log r where t is the time of separation, c is the remaining root
words, r is the ratio of remaining words to original. (86 words left after 1,000
years based on tests)

If t = 1,000 years, Nt/No = r**(1/1000) = c where Nt is the total root words
remaining after time separation t and No is the number of root words from the
root language in the list (time zero)

Thus, a language that has 47% of the root words of the following Sumerian list
can be a direct descendant of that language according to Hymes. Please note that
this mathematical relationship by Hymes was for 100 selected words for which
reader is asked to see Fred
Hamori's home page.

1."u" has been widely used in Turkish literature as a word corresponding
to the word "and". It might be considered by some as a loan word into Turkish
from Persian. Although it is not clear who got this word from whom, however, in
our view, it is a Central Asiatic word which has migrated into Persian: a) by
way of Sumerians and/or 2) by way of other Central Asiatic peoples such as Sakas,
Huns, Turks who ruled the Persian land mass many times and each time for very
long durations of time throughout the known history. So, in Persia there were a
lot of interaction between Central Asiatic Turkish peoples and Persians
throughout the history. During these times of interactions, there have been
linguistic and cultural borrowings between the two ethnic groups.

2.Sumerian "pa" is reported to mean the "top", the "upper part of a
tree", "the upper part of a bird", "supervisor", "chief" and "coming from upper
sides" [AZ, 223]. If this definition is correct, then we would have direct
correspondence for it in Turkish. The Turkish version of this Sumerian word
would be as follows: "bas^ = head"; "the upper part of a bird" is 'bas^'; father
"apa" in Turkish is a supervisor of a household as well as the chief of the
family. So evidently Sumerian "pa" and Turkish "bas^ are related to each other.
Probably the earliest form of Turkish "bas^" was also "pa". This we can se from
the Turkish word "tepe" meaning hill, mountain top, top of the head and
figuratively, someone above others. In Turkish, there is also the saying of "dag~
bas^i" meaning "mountain top". If we want to synthesize this two words in old
Turkish, we would need to put together the Turkish word "tau (dag~) = mountain"
and the word "bas^ = pa". Thus we would have {tau+pa ----> taupa ----> tapa}
which is exactly the Turkish word "tepe" in form and meaning, thus, meaning
"mountain top" or hill. When one looks at a mountain chain at a horizon,
"mountain peaks" will look like "small hills = tepes" with respect to the main
bodies of the mountains. So Turkish word "tepe" fits well to these two different
but similar concepts. Let us now consider the Turkish word "apa" meaning
"father". If we use the same approach to its synthesis as we did for the word "tepe,
one could say that "father is the "head of a house', "father" is a "supervisor"
and "father" is the "chief" in the house and hence we would have {a + pa} where
the Sumerian word "e" is "house" and "pa" is "top". The Turkish word for "house"
is "ev" the very ancient version of which was probably "e" or "a". When we put
them together, we have {(ev+bas^) ----> (e + pa) ----> (a+pa) ----> apa =
father}. Again we see that we have a likely explanation for Turkish word "apa"
having total affinity to the Sumerian words "e = house" plus "pa= top".

3.The concept inbedded in the words "bud", "leaf" and "sprout" have one
aspect in common to them all which is they all develop at the tip of the branch
of a tree or plant. So Sumerian "pa" meaning "top", as also suggested by the
Turkic words "tepe" and "apa", seems to be a fitting interpretation of the
Sumerian sign for this word.

4.For Central Asiatic people, whose economy in ancient times was based on
herds of sheep, cattle, horse and other herbivorous animals, lamb and/or sheep,
i.e., Sumerian "udu for sheep and Turkish "kuzu" for lamb, was one source of
meat. This culture, i.e., using "lamb meat" for their meat intake, has been
carried on to the present times by Turkic peoples.

5.In Turkish, change from d to y is very common. Because of this type of
consonant changes, some Turkic dialects are classified as d group and some
others as y group, eg. adak versus ayak meaning "foot",[TDEK2].

6.The word "mar" for snake, serpent is used both in Turkish and Persian.
Some would claim it as a Persian loan word in Turkish. Who got the word from
whom is not certain.

7.In archaic Turkish, there is the-en, -an suffix used as suffix
for plural. A good example of this is in the Turkish word "er-en" meaning "men,
soldiers, brave men". When the 3rd p. s. pronounoor when it is in the
form of an, en receives the plural suffix-an or-en, we get 'an+an' or 'en+en' form
which would correspond to the present form 'onlar'. Thus the archaic form en-en or an-an of
this Turkic word would be related to the corresponding Sumerian word 'e.ne.ne'.

8.If a Sumerian word starts with a vowel and ends with a consonant, i.e.,
in the format of VC, it is very likely that in the original Sumerian form, that
word may actually ended in a vowel, i.e., having a VCV format whereby the final
V was dropped when reading the Sumerian cuneiform writing, eg: us[u], ug[u].
Similarly, if a Sumerian word has been read in the CV format, it is likely that
that word was originally in VCV format, but somehow the first vowel got dropped
in the evolution of the Sumerian language or in the reading process of the
Sumerian cuneiform writings.

9.In Sumerian pantheon "an" is the topmost god who created everything on
the earth and in the sky. The underlying theme of this word is that "an" is the
"mother creator" of everything. In view of this understanding, it seems that the
Turkish word "ana" for mother is related to the Sumerian "an". It is reasonable
to think that even during proto Sumerian times, "an" and "ana" not only were
related but probably were the same word used for a number of differing meanings
as indicated by the Sumerian word "an" and the Turkish word "ana". This again
implies that the ancestors of Turks and the Sumerians were very closely related
people, sharing a common culture in a homeland common to both of them. All
indications are pointing to Central Asian steppes.

10.It seems that the Sumerian suffix -ag and Turkish suffix -ag or -ak
have the similar meaning as suggested in the following examples: bar-ag vs
otur-ak, or dur-ak.

11.In Turkish the saying "men menem" has two meanings; 1) 'I am myself, I
do not resemble anyone else but myself; 2) 'I am my fate' which again means 'I
represent my fate only' or 'I am the living representation of my fate'. In this
Turkic saying, one gets the meaning of Sumerian "me" for fate. Therefore, there
seems to be a kinship between the Sumerian word "mae = I", the Turkish word "men
= I" and the Sumerian word "me" for fate.

12.As one interacts with the ground, one picks up dirt, "kir" in Turkish,
which comes from the ground. Thus it seems that Sumerian word "ki" and Turkish
word "kir", in addition to Turkic "KIR" = countryside, are related and coming
from the same root word.

13.In Turkish the root word "kat" signifies "layers" of layered object in
which layers are tied or attached together, eg. 'apartman kati' a floor of a
building, 'ipin kati' a layer of a rope, 'kat' of any weaving eg. basket, socks,
rug weaving, etc. In the case of rope, the layer threads are tied or hold
together by twisting, "bükmek" in Turkish, them together. Thus the Turkish word
"büküm" signifies a kind of tie or knot, i.e., "dügüm" in Turkish.

14.Turkish villager who raise sheep keep their herd in enclosed pens
during winter. The waste of sheep in the pen is stepped on and pressed down by
the sheep all winter long. In the spring time when sheep are let out, then the
pressed sheep waste is cut and put out to dry. The dried waste is used for
burning. These cut and dried waste bricks are called "kesek" or "kerme" or "tezek"
depending on the local dialect of people using it.

15.This Sumerian word pronounced as abzu by some Sumerologist is written
as zuab in its original Sumerian writing [JLHa], that is to say that the sign
for zu is written before the sign for ab. Therefore, I feel that it should have
been read as zuab rather than abzu. If these two signs written together as zuab
stands for underground waters in Sumerian, then we have a correspondence between
this Sumerian word and the Turkic word "su" for water. Why the order of the
Sumerian words zuab has been changed to abzu is a mystery. This kind of
arbitrary change alters the character of the word making the word Akkadian
rather than Central Asian as written in its Sumerian form.

16.The ancient Turkic word for "sky" is "tang > tan". This is written in
the form of "Tan" in "IRK BITIG" hand written Gök Türk manuscripts, [HNO,271,
line 38. XXVI]. The Turkic words "tengri", tenger", "tengere", "tangara" and "tanri"
which all come from the same root, initially must have consisted of the root
words "tang" or "Teng" plus "er" plus "-i" meaning the "man of the sky/heaven"
and hence "the God". These roots put together as (teng + er + i) ---> tengeri
---> tengri. The suffix -i is indicative of the accusative form of the Altaic
word "tengri".